RSS Feed

This morning I turned off the RSS feed for this blog.  Some of you may be wondering what that is.  Basically that is the program that allows others to syndicate the material we publish here.

I figured there would be some questions about this, so I tried to guess what they would be, and answer them below.  If you have any additional questions, feel free to use the comment section.

Will this cause a drop in traffic? Yes, there's no question that Raising Kaine will now be the #1 Virginia blog for web traffic.  From what I can see this morning being removed from these services has dropped traffic about 10%.  I don't know if this will improve when people learn that we are no longer being syndicated or not, and frankly I don't care.

Why are you doing this?  We had a lax policy on this for a while.  However one rogue website, operated by an editor of the Virginian Pilot at night has been taking our material, republishing it, and then creating a place to rate it.  From the small traffic on that site he is then creating a rating system on how "influential" blogs are.  The work I have done here speaks for itself, and I'm not interested in being rated- especially in a system that has seen SWAC Girl rated higher than Raising Kaine in influence some weeks.  Nothing against SWACGirl but something like this can only be taken in good humor if it is based in reality.  I won't participate in a lie.

Why not just ask to be removed from that one site? We did, and the rogue operator refused.

Can he do that? Probably not, but the only way to force him to remove us would be to sue. 

Couldn't you just block his feed?  Not on typepad.  Raising Kaine is in the process of trying to do that, which will allow them to remain on other syndication services.

Should we contact the Virginian Pilot?  I talked to the Editor of the Editorial Page, Dennis Hartig last week.  He told me the operator of this site did so on their own time, and the Pilot was uninvolved with this project.  So there is no reason to contact them directly.  However, having someone who steals content from an unpaid blogger as a money making venture at night is pretty unethical, and the Pilot will have to decide if that is the kind of image they want around the state.

Will this have any impact in the kind of stories we see on NLS?  No.  If you didn't read this site through a syndication before, you won't notice any difference.

Comments

"Nothing against SWACGirl but something like this can only be taken in good humor if it is based in reality."

Great, now I have to clean coffee out of my keyboard.

[phriendlyjaime]

Why is he refusing to take people off hid roll, Ben? I would think that any other place would have no problem with complying with the blogger's wishes.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Jaime, don't call it a blogroll. A blogroll doesn't take the content of the stories themselves.

I was surprised when he refused to remove NLS and RK when we asked.

[Pete in Williamsburg]

I wouldn't know about SWAC Girl if Ben didn't provide her a charity link on his bottom-of-the-barrell link list. Her site has about 12 comments on her entire front page with 4 or 5 from her. Be careful of messing with a political heavyweight like SWAC!

[phriendlyjaime]

Well, I am on it too. Anyone else? We should ask too, see where it gets us.

On the other hand, I have to say; I really don't care whether or not I "win" some contest on BNN. I have friends, have always had friends, and I don't need to win a popularity contest of bloggers. But if there are seriously "adults" out there that actually go to this site and click on themselves over and over again to feel like the coolest of the cool, then I am very, very sorry for them. I cannot imagaine what it must be like to have such low self esteem.

Couldn't the newspaper tell this reporter to take people off who ask or they fire him?

[johnmaxfiled]

Oh, Benny! I can't believe that. You're basically saying, "How dare a amateur blogger like SWAC Girl be rated above a professional like Raising Kaine" or dare I say,....you. It doesn't matter in the least. In fact, I think that garnering that same response for me, would be an honor. BNN's ratings of SWAC Girl over RK is based on many different facets. BNN looks at overall influence--not just how many clicks you get in a day. Shouldn't you be supportive of this and not pouting?

[NotBenOrJohnMaxfield]

Says the man who is NOT on Ben's blogroll, which basically shows how little influence he has...

CURRENT:

Rank Blog
1 Raising Kaine
2 Bloggers 4 Sayre
3 BLACK VELVET BRUCE LI
4 Not Larry Sabato
5 Scott's Morning Brew
6 Mason Conservative
7 From On High
8 Virginia Virtucon
9 Goodbye Ken
10 Below The Beltway
11 ImNotEmeril
12 Ward View
13 Vivian J. Paige
14 Spank That Donkey
15 Waldo Jaquith
16 Spark It Up!
17 General Grievous' Dog
18 SWAC Girl
19 Extreme Mortman
20 Bearing Drift

Isn't it funny how the Castle bloggers are all on here? People that aren't even known in the blogosphere? EMERIL above VIVIAN?!? Interesting.

[SWAC Girl]

Ah, come on, Ben ... why did you single ME out as the example? Thanks a lot!

Ever since I entered the blogosphere I've tried to write what I believe and am passionate about. I'm more emotional than you guys and maybe that's what sets me apart. However, I think there's room for all of us.

I admire those of you who are very factual in your writing, listing poll data and such, and I learn from reading it. I'm the political junkie, too, and pour over the polling facts and figures.

However, that's not my strength when writing. I feel strongly about supporting the troops and working within my community so I write about that.

I was amazed -- and pleased -- to be # 3 last week on BNN but didn't say anything because it would be bragging. Also, the higher you go, the harder the fall ... and this week I'm # 18.

Having said that, I take it with a grain of salt. It's nice to receive a little recognition but, at the same time, it's not the end of the world. Those of us who don't have the thousands of hits of the popular blogs are given a chance with variables being considered such as influence, content, etc.

I'm sorry you feel as you do, Ben. My thought would be you're taking it way too seriously but, then, you are more serious about your blog than I am about SWAC Girl. Mine is cathargic, a way to express my opinions about political issues because I disagree with much of the MSM's viewpoints.

I like BNN, I like Dave, and I like what he's doing because I think it adds a little fun into the blogosphere.

We'll miss you at BNN. Keep up the good work!

[anon]

pour over the polling facts and figures.

What do you pour on it? Water? Juice? Booze?

I only read the blog when I see a new article has been posted via the RSS feed. If you no longer send out notices via RSS, I will not be reading your blog. I learned of this via RK.

It raises the ?, are you really stopping the RSS feeds because you are being over taken by RK? And, are you being over taken by RK because you recently said you were losing interest in posting daily?

[johnmaxfield]

"Says the man who is NOT on Ben's blogroll, which basically shows how little influence he has..."

Oh yea. Great comeback. How originial. Maybe I don't need my ratings to be bolstered by being blogrolled on NLS (nothing against Benny), unlike you. This talk of me 'not adding' (or perhaps, NOT adding) adds nothing to the conversation except a way to divert attention from the discussion at hand. Get over yourself.

"Isn't it funny how the Castle bloggers are all on here?"

Yea it is. Funny perhaps, not because we are 'people that aren't even known in the blogosphere', but that we are BECOMING KNOWN. We are the ones they are reading I guess, otherwise---why would we be at the top of the rankings? Emeril over Vivian?--darn skippy.

[NotBenOrJohnMaxfield]

Get over yourself.

then...

Funny perhaps, not because we are 'people that aren't even known in the blogosphere', but that we are BECOMING KNOWN. We are the ones they are reading I guess, otherwise---why would we be at the top of the rankings? Emeril over Vivian?--darn skippy.

CLASSIC HYPOCRISY. GOOD JOB!

[novamiddleman]

1. EVERYBODY GROW UP

2. Guess what the BNN rankings are based on.... wait for it.... by the people that use BNN... wow shocker

So lets analyze. Who uses BNN.... wait for it... people who are more conservative in general and... wait for it... the Castle people... shocker

3. everybody grow up

I am waiting for leftyblogs to start ranking next so Ben can be in the top

[Kevin]

What in hell does "castle" mean anyway? Did I miss the memo?

"Guess what the BNN rankings are based on.... wait for it.... by the people that use BNN... wow shocker

So lets analyze. Who uses BNN.... wait for it... people who are more conservative in general and... wait for it... the Castle people... shocker"

So it's basically a circle jerk for people to feel better about putting their time and effort into blogging?

[phriendlyjaime]

That site is really interesting, Ben. The more I look at the site and the ratings, which I have never done before, the more I see how easy it must be to be highly ranked.

It looks like ranking is based on other blogs linking to you, on reader ratings, which range from terrible to terrific, scaled 1-10. That's pretty much it, unless they calculate people clicking on the blog from BNN. Well, that makes it pretty easy to be the "winner", it looks like. I have noticed that certain bloggers have formed "alliances" and always cover a story similar to the others in their alliance, and then they link back to all of the posts, including their older posts on the subject. This is not strange, and it certainly helps put the message out there. Is it an echo chamber? Sure it is. A lot of the blogosphere is, though. That being said, I assume it would be very easy to simply click on your own post and your budddies' posts through BNN in order to generate clicks. Lastly, if you stay on BNN all day, and vote yourself and your buddies as terrific, and just click on the "liberal blogs" link and vote them all terrible, it would be easy to make yourself look like the winner. This is, of course, a contest no one really cares about nor takes seriously. But the question remains: are these wiinning bloggers more influential than Lowell at RK, Ben at NLS, or Vivian? OF COURSE NOT. It's a silly, and almost sad, popularity contest in which they are the only ones playing. Ican call myself awesome all day long, but if no one agrees, I am not neccessarily awesome, now am I? (but I am)

Dude, blogging takes up too much time as it is. If you have time to force yourself to be the bestest....get off the computer and do some charity work. Or exercise. Or just have some fun. SERIOUSLY, now...

[novamiddleman]

You will get multiple versions of this story but basically

Back in 2005ish Waldo created the first virginia blog aggregator

Then there were some issues with posts and taking stuff down blah blah typical high school crap

So in response a group of bloggers formed into Castle and joined BNN which was the other major aggregator at the time.

Now there are so many aggregators (conservativa, lefty blogs, old dominion blog alliance, richmond bloggers, etc..) that only accept/filter certain posts you can create your very own virtual political bubble right from the comfort of your computer screen whoopee :-p

[Anon]

wow - talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[Kevin]

"Ican call myself awesome all day long, but if no one agrees, I am not neccessarily awesome, now am I? (but I am)"

I'll call you awesome. I think Thadd would agree (you did cook him breakfast)...so that's two people at least.

"So in response a group of bloggers formed into Castle and joined BNN which was the other major aggregator at the time."

Oh...I thought "Castle" actually meant something.

But it sounds like Jaime is right. People link to each other then click on their links to make it look like they have a virtual machine gun when all they have is a water pistol.

[eileen]

Phriendly, I think you very aptly hit the nail on the head. I've taken the BNN off my site.

[phriendlyjaime]

Sweet. One "you hit the nail on the head", one "Jaime is right", and one "Jaime is aw4esome".

I FEEL VINDICATED!!!!! LINK TO ME!!! DO I WIN A PRIZE!?!?

[Phil Chroniger]

Personally, I have no problem with BNN, plus...has anyone else noticed that BNN is NOT just Virginia, but in several other states, as well.

Hell, Virginia's blogosphere is probably the second most active in the country, behind California (and it's close, IMO).

I'm keeping BNN up there on my site, but that's just me. I guess Ben can do whatever he wants.

[Phil Chroniger]

I've also noticed in the above comments that it seems that only the Democrats and other leftist bloggers are removing BNN.

Interesting...